MInimal. Trump let the crazies flourish and create a lunatic beachhead. The crazies are extremists, and Trump enouraged them – and then lost control of them. Big surprise.

Extremists don’t believe or understand nuance – never have – and as a result turn into anarchists with some unidentified goal in mind. Why unidentified? Because extremists need to keep pushing limits in order to legitimize themselves.

Back to the question. If the conservative movement grows a spine and an ideology it can survive and thrive. As long as we have the Trump/Boebert/Cruz/Greene loonies, the conservative moment has no hope.

I keep hoping a large number of rational Republican leaders will break away from “falling in line” and lead the Republicans out of the lunacy, but I think there is only a very remote chance of it. A lot of Democrats seem to hope the Republicans remaining follow the lunatics over the edge. A VERY dangerous game in my opinion. The lunatics are backed by a shit ton of money both foreign and domestic.

Who is hoping for the Republicans to run the craziest candidates? Obviously, the Republicans and unaffiliated who actually think those people are right for leadership. I don’t think the minorities in our country want the lunatics to run or to exist, not the ones who really feel under threat. There are Democrats who think it’s a good strategy or some even think it’s amusing. That seems naive or ignorant to me. Lunatics do sometimes take over countries.

A lot of liberals want to push very progressive candidates, but that makes it harder for Republicans and Independents to vote for the Democrat. What is the goal right now? To prevent the lunatics from taking hold of the country? Or, to hope for the country to take a sharp turn towards the left? I don’t even think most Democrats want an extreme turn to the left.

Last week the Washington Post ran an article opining that Ron DeSantis is the way back to normal for the Trump Republicans.
I nearly barfed my Cheerios.

rational Republican leaders is an oxymoron. And conservatism as a movement/philosophy is built on a false premise, that Conservative politics lives up to the American ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the Preamble of the Constitution.

Conservatives wrap themselves in the flag while undermining the basic founding principles of the U.S.

@filmfann The “base” in The Republican Party will never be normal.

I have no idea what DeSantis will do if he runs for national office. It’s likely he does what most Republicans do and shift harder to the right.

The Democrats at large don’t really understand what DeSantis has done in Florida.

I’ll be interested to read that article.

I try to be as HOPEFUL as possible especially since I have a long life ahead of me but I will confess that I don’t know what to think about this insanity we call politics. I am HOPEFUL that someone with some common sense will step in and save the day and our country.

@RayaHope It’s funny, because conservatives say the same thing.

That’s what they say, but just look at who and what they choose to further what they believe are their own interests.

@Kropotkin Why is it the conservatives that seem to cause all the crazy upheaval in our country? Liberals didn’t attack the government, liberals didn’t take away woman’s rights, liberals didn’t walk down the streets with AK weapons shooting people, liberals didn’t break into a home and attack someone with a hammer… Should I go on?

Here’s my take. It is finally getting through to the middle class that for them, the American dream is over. The traditional culprits the GOP wheeled out as the excuse for this which worked marvelously in the past (unless you thought them through) —-you know the list, ghetto criminals, illegal immigrants, gays, welfare queens, paroled convicts, godless liberals, etc. Well nowadays, even the slowest of our deplorables suspect that the game is fixed. And if you examine that list, at some point you must ask yourself which of the villains on that list are actually capable of stacking the deck such that the rich AWAYS get richer while the average white man steadily loses ground? Is it BLM or perhaps ANTIFA? You can (of course) point to the godless liberals, but it wasn’t illegal immigrants who decided bailing out the banks is preferable to student debt relief. And while we’re at it, ask yourself why it is that Republicans are so opposed to student debt relief? The banks get their money one way or the other. Let’s put it simply. The banks and the class that owns the banks are pissed at elimination of all that risk free guaranteed interest. Pick any issue that irritates the right, but never forget to ask yourself who benefits financially from spinning the narrative.